Annunciation 2018 - Mary, Co-Redemptrix

The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church. Earlier names for the Feast were Festum Incarnationis—The Feast of the Incarnation, and Conceptio Christi—the Conception of Christ. Though the name has varied, the date of the Feast is is placed exactly nine months before Christmas: nine months, the term of a pregnancy, except when it is displaced by Holy Week or the Octave of Easter, as it was this year.

We just celebrated Easter, and this feast gets us thinking about Christmas already. But this feast is so important, because without the Annunciation there wouldn’t have been an easter, without Mary’s yes, there would be no incarnation, and with no incarnation, there would be no saving sacrifice, no resurrection, no hope.

This is why Mary is often given the title of “Co-Redemptrix”. Mary participates in the redemption of man through her fiat. She cooperates with God’s plan for human redemption when she humbly accepts the Will of God, saying “Be it done unto me according to your word.” She accepts the labor and sufferings that the will of God entails. The devotion of the Seven Sorrows of Mary help us to contemplate all she suffered in union with Christ her Son to bring about—to deliver—our salvation.

Since Jesus Christ is the Mercy of God incarnate, Mary can rightly be called the “Mother of Mercy”, as she is in the Salve Regina. Since Jesus Christ is the salvation of the world, Mary can rightly be called the “Cause of our Salvation”, cause, in the Aristotelian sense, as she was called by St. Irenaeus in the 3rd century. Since Christ is Our Joy, Mary is rightly called the “Cause of our Joy”

Mary’s role in our salvation is not to be overvalued—as many protestants claim we do, nor is it to be undervalued, as most protestants end up doing. The Catholic position is not too hot, not too cold, but just right. To rightly love the Son, we rightly love the mother who brought him into the world through a consent of the will so humble it made the angels rejoice.

May we rightly enshrine Mary in our hearts by imitating her humility, by humbly submitting our minds, our wills, our whole lives to the Lord. May the Blessed Mother bring about in us a flowering, a new birth, of God’s grace within each of us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That through the teaching, preaching, and pastoral care of the Church all Christians will grow in their devotion to and imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We pray to the Lord.

That through Immaculate Mary, Queen of Peace, hatred, violence, and cruelty will cease in the world.  We pray to the Lord.

For those trapped in the downward spiral of sin, that the hope offered through the Incarnation of Christ in the womb of the Blessed Virgin will bring them new life in the Spirit.  We pray to the Lord.

That Mary’s maternal care and heavenly intercession will raise us to the moral greatness befitting true children of God.  We pray to the Lord.

For blessings on all expectant mothers, newborn infants, and young families.  We pray to the Lord.
That from the moment of conception all children will be preserved from bodily harm; for the overturning of unjust laws that permit the destruction of innocent life; and that the minds of all may be enlightened to know the dignity of every human life.  We pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for all who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  We pray to the Lord.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Sunday of Easter 2018 - "Men do not die for things they doubt.”

Happy Easter! He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! For much of the world, Easter is over. For Catholics, we are just warming up. Easter is celebrated over the course of a whole season of 50 days: from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. We celebrated with particular solemnity over the first 8 days of the easter season, called the easter octave. So, if you attended weekday Mass this past week, we were singing the Gloria every day, and our scripture readings related some amazing events that took place after Jesus resurrected: His appearance to Mary Magdalene, Having breakfast with his apostles on the shore of the sea of Galilee, his appearance to his disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Why do we dwell upon the “Easter-event” for so long? For the same reason Jesus appeared over and over to his disciples before ascending to the Father: to strengthen their faith, their conviction, that he is truly risen. And it took a while for the apostles to really get it. Those first few appearances Jesus has to convince them that he’s not just a hallucination, he’s not a ghost. He’s really there in the flesh—resurrected flesh. He eats fish and bread with them on the seashore, he invites Thomas, as we heard in the Gospel today, to put his hand in Jesus’ side.

He does this so they would stop doubting and truly believe.

I know some of you have seen the new movie about the Apostle Paul out in theaters. It’s very good, I highly recommend it—a perfect way to spend a…snowy easter Sunday. It tells the story of the Apostle Paul in the last weeks of his life. He is imprisoned in Rome, awaiting his martyrdom. The emperor Nero has blamed the Christians for setting fire to the city, and so the small Christian community is facing persecution. Christians are forced into hiding, and those they capture are being put to death. They are covered in pitch and burned alive in the streets, they are arrested and sent to be torn apart by wild beasts in the Coliseum.

One of my favorite scenes, and this shouldn’t give too much away for those who haven’t seen it, is when this Roman prison guard is questioning Paul about his Christian faith. This Roman guard challenges Paul about the truth of the resurrection. Paul answers, “If Christ had not risen from the dead, then our preaching is useless, and so is our faith.” The Roman Guard responds, “So you have no doubts at all?” And with a steeled look, forged by the terrible suffering he has already endured for the Gospel, Paul answers, “Men do not die for things they doubt.” “Men do not die for things they doubt.”

St. Thomas in the Gospel today, for his moment of doubt, has for two thousand years been known as “Doubting Thomas.” But the Apostle Thomas is really a testament of the power of faith to transform doubt to apostolic zeal.

For, after this scene from the Gospel today, after he places his hands in the side of the Risen Lord Jesus, Thomas is transformed.

The scriptures record no further accounts of the apostle Thomas, but accounts from the early Church tell of Thomas’ apostolic and missionary activity in modern day Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, sadly, places where Christianity has been virtually eliminated in recent years. Finally, Thomas brought the faith to western and Southern India where he was martyred.

“Men do not die for things they doubt.” Through God’s divine mercy, the encounter with the risen Lord transformed Thomas’ doubt into a blazing faith.

Blazing faith, apostolic zeal, is not just “up here”, it’s not something we profess for an hour on Sunday and forget by the time we hit the church parking lot.

St. John reminds us that “For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.” The commandments of the moral law, and the commandments of the new law, like the one Jesus issued on Holy Thursday: love one another, as I love you, and the mandate Jesus issues before his Ascension: go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Yes, each of us is inspired to say along with Thomas, Jesus, “you are my Lord and my God”, but like Thomas we must leave the upper room, to spread the faith, and to live that faith in our day-to-day lives.

St. Thomas the Apostle is a perfect example of this. Thomas, as we’ve said, carried the good news thousands of miles, to the middle east, and eventually to India. A pagan Indian King, upon meeting the apostle, was so impressed with his conviction and holiness that the King made Thomas a trusted advisor and his royal architect.  This is why Thomas the Apostle is the patron saint of architects.
Anyway, the king put at Thomas’ disposal the great wealth of his treasury for planning and building a new royal palace.  But Thomas donated the entire sum to the poor, telling the King, that this way he builds a greater palace in heaven.  For this Thomas was forgiven when the king’s dead brother appeared to the king and testified to the reality and glory of the heavenly palace.

Thomas was martyred, however, when he converted the king’s many wives to Christ and they insisted that marriage is between one man and one woman.

 “Men do not die for things they doubt.” St Thomas and the apostles, and countless martyrs whose names we will only discover in heaven, found the courage and willingness to follow Jesus anywhere, to speak Christian truth in front of kings and judges. They model the faith for us, showing us how the encounter with the Risen Christ changes us, and emboldens us for courageously living the moral life, generously engaging in Christian service, and zealously laying down our lives for the spread of the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our Easter celebrations, our to deepen our conviction that Christ the Lord is Risen, that this truth may permeate every dimension of our life for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Easter Octave 2018 - Friday - "Come Have Breakfast"

When the angel appeared to the women at the empty tomb, the angel told them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, and there they shall see the Lord. Well, today, we hear how they have gone to Galilee—the Sea of Tiberius is another name for the Sea of Galilee—and there they see the Lord. Why they decided to go fishing is questionable, shouldn’t they have been focusing on looking for Jesus instead of retreating back to their comfort zones?

Well, they might not having been looking for Jesus, but Jesus was looking for them. And making their way to shore, Jesus says to them, “come, have breakfast”.  There is something special about breakfast. It’s not a royal banquet, it’s a simple, yet intimate meal, typically shared with family. It’s informal, everybody might still be a bit disheveled, not everyone is washed. The disciples, after a night of working, certainly fit this description.

And Jesus is the one here who makes breakfast for the group. Like a parent for children, still groggy from sleep. In fact, Jesus calls the disciples “children” here, doesn’t he. And just like groggy children, the disciples didn’t seem quite awake when they first saw the Lord.

This is also going to be a moment of reconciliation and a sharing of love, just like the family table is meant to be. For it was beside a charcoal fire that Peter denied Jesus, and now beside a charcoal fire, Peter will express his sorrow and his love for Jesus.

Jesus knew the disciples would be hungry after a night of fishing, but no doubt they were hungrier for the truth: that Jesus was with them, that he had indeed risen from the dead, that their first two encounters with him weren’t hallucinations, he wasn’t a ghost, and that he was continuing to prepare them for the great mission of spreading the good news, making disciples, teaching all nations that salvation is found in Him.

We are like the disciples here, groggy, a bit distracted, disheveled from all of our worldly business. And Jesus, calls out to us, often in a voice we don’t initially recognize, to come and to be renewed in faith, to be reconciled with Him, to deepen our love for Him. Jesus knew the disciples needed to be strengthened for their mission, so he feeds them, and he feeds us too, in intimate moments of prayer and with His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

But he does so, that we may wake up, and shrug off our grogginess, and be ever more focused and intent on spreading the Gospel and building up His Body the Church, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received.

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

Easter Octave 2018 - Thursday - Recounting our Encounters with the Risen Christ

Yesterday, we heard how Jesus had appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Today, we hear how those disciples return to Jerusalem, and, as missionaries, they recount their experience of seeing, speaking, engaging, and eating with the Risen Christ.

There is a perfect model for our own missionary discipleship, to recount to others our experience of seeing, speaking, engaging, and eating with the Risen Christ.

Share with others how you have seen God work in the world. How have you seen God mending wounds, where have you seen God working miracles. The disciples met God—met Jesus—on the road to Emmaus, where have you met God? In your family home growing up? On a retreat? In the catechism classroom? Or on the streets? In the destitute?

Share with others your experience of speaking with God? How has God spoken to you in your prayer life? Through what Saints has God spoken to you? What books or spiritual writings? What scripture passages have spoken to you in your own times of sorrow and dark valleys? What Church teachings have made the most difference in your life?

Share with others your experience of Jesus moving you, engaging you, sending you out. How has Jesus moved you out of your comfort zone? How has he converted you from one way of thinking to another? What virtues, spiritual gifts, spiritual fruits has he caused to grow in you? Share with others the joy and peace that comes from making a good confession.

And share with others your experience of encountering Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Share with others the importance of coming to Mass, Sunday Mass, Daily Mass, and eating with Him. Share with others how attending Mass has changed your life? What caused you, perhaps, of being lukewarm about Mass, to zealous for it?

“The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way.” Don’t be afraid to tell your story, to share, even in very simple terms, how you have encountered Jesus walking with you in your life’s journey. For right when the disciples shared their story, Jesus appeared in their midst, and continued to open their minds and hearts to the Scriptures, to the wisdom of God.

There are people in our lives who are longing to meet Jesus through these very means. Jesus wants to appear to the hard-hearted, the unbeliever, and the sorrowful. And he is waiting for us to share Him with them, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received.

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

Easter Octave 2018 - Tuesday - Grace-filled encounters with the Risen Christ

Listen again to the words of the Entrance Antiphon for this Tuesday within the Easter Octave: “He gave them the water of wisdom to drink; it will be made strong in them and will not be moved; it will raise them up for ever, alleluia.”  These three beautiful lines remind of us of the three sacraments of initiation which the neophytes receive on the easter vigil. The water of baptism, the strengthening oil of confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist, of which Jesus says, “whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Remember, during these first days of easter, the Church shows special care for the newly initiated. They would attend daily mass often garbed in their baptismal garments, and afterwards, they would meet with their catechists to continue to unpack what they experienced at the Easter Vigil.

And not so much “what" they experienced but, “WHO” they experienced. For the Sacraments are “grace-filled encounters with the Risen Christ.”

Mary Magdalene in the Gospel today serves as a sort of model for all those who encounter Christ--for those who encountered Christ for the first time at Easter, and for all of us.

Firstly, when Mary Magdalene “encounters Christ” in the garden,  at first she does not recognize Him. Often we do not recognize the ways Jesus appears to us. Even in the Sacraments, for the un-initiated, all you see is water, oil, bread, or a grizzled old priest.

But as the Catechism teaches, in the sacraments, it is Christ who baptizes, Christ who confirms, Christ who feeds us with his body and blood, Christ who heals the sick, Christ who absolves our sins, Christ who unites in marriage.

Next, Mary’s tears are changed for sorrow into joy as she begins to understand and believe that Christ is alive. Similarly, as we grow in faith, as we allow the grace of the sacraments to grow within us, sorrow over earthly realities is transformed into joy over heavenly ones.

Finally, Jesus tells Mary “stop holding onto me.” Each of the Sacraments, particularly those of initiation, help us to stop living in the past, as they help us to embrace the present mission Christ gives us. Mary is sent to bring the good news to the rest of the disciples, and so are we.

This Easter Season, may the grace of the sacraments continue to be unleashed in our lives: the wisdom that comes from turning away from the world and turning to the Risen Christ in baptism, the strength and fortitude for resisting temptation and spreading the Gospel that comes from confirmation, and the new life that comes to us under the appearance of bread and wine in the Eucharist, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received.

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

Easter Octave 2018 - Monday - Newness of faith

Recall the entrance antiphon this morning: “The Lord has risen from the dead, as he said; let us all exult and rejoice, for he reigns for all eternity, alleluia.” The entrance antiphon reminds us that we are to continue our Easter celebration with great joy.

The Church celebrates the “Easter-event” for an Octave of days, each day reading a different Gospel passage from that first Easter Sunday.

In the early Church, those baptized at the Easter Vigil would attend Mass every day this week, to continue to joyfully celebrate their new life in Christ, and meet for post-baptismal catechesis.
This is why the opening collect prays especially for the newly initiated. Listen to these words again: “O God, who give constant increase to your Church by new offspring, grant that your servants may hold fast in their lives to the Sacrament they have received in faith.”

Just as the Easter Sacraments brought new life to the newly initiated, Easter rejuvenates the entire Church. These Easter days are to renew in us that conviction that Jesus rose from the dead. Like St. Peter bursting out of the Upper Room, filled with the Spirit, Easter is to energize us into bursting into the world to preach with our lives.

The Lord sends us anew, as he did Mary Magdalene, to bolster the faith of the brethren, to our fellow Christians, who don’t quite get it, right? Who have not allowed the Good News to change them, to convert them, who continue to trust in the ways of the world rather in the ways of God. We do well, like the Magdalene, to fall to the Lord's feet in homage, to deepen our love for him, and to plead for souls who are lukewarm.

And perhaps there are dark corners of our own hearts that the light of Christ has yet to penetrate, cold areas of our hearts that the fire of the resurrection has yet to set-aflame.

May our Easter celebrations rejuvenate, renew, and set-us aflame with zeal for the good news. For “He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn to earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received.

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

Easter Sunday 2018 - Easter Laughter & The Joy of the Gospel

During the 15th century in southern Germany, a delightful custom sprung up in many parishes. At the end of the Easter church service, the priest would leave the altar and come down among the people and lead the congregation in what was called the “Risus Paschalis”, which roughly translates as “the Easter laughter.” The priest would tell funny stories and sing comical songs to evoke Easter laughter. Eventually this evolved into a regular annual practice, and the Sunday after Easter became known as Risus Paschalis Sunday. Priests would include jokes and funny stories in their sermons, and would sometimes even play practical jokes on their parishioners.

Eventually Pope Clement X outlawed the practice due to severe abuses of the practice: perhaps the medieval equivelant of putting whoopie cushions under the pews or itching powder in the holy water for the sprinkling rite.

But, why did this practice arise? Why did priests start telling jokes on Easter? Laughter is a sign of the joy that should mark this day. Joy is to bubble up in us like laughter after a good joke, as we celebrate the great victory of Jesus Christ over the powers of death.

In a sense, the greatest, most elaborate, most memorable prank in history took place that first Holy Week. Think of it…everyone was convinced Jesus was gone, dead, done away with for good. Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers thought so; with Jesus dead, they wouldn’t have to worry about an insurrection. The crowds that called for Jesus’ crucifixion thought so, in their minds, Jesus was a charlatan and got what he deserved. The Pharisees and Sanhedrin thought so; they had done everything in their power to be rid of Jesus who they thought to be guilty of the most heinous of blasphemies—claiming to be God. Satan himself must have thought that he had pulled off his great triumph in frustrating the plans and purposes of God.

But then the surprise. Then the punchline. Death was not the end, rather suffering and death became the instruments of God’s greatest victory. Death and violence do not get the last laugh, the last word. , The work of the evil one is undone by turning his own weapons against him. Suffering and death, which entered the world as a consequence of sin, were to become the very means by which sin was vanquished.

Easter is the morning when the Lord laughs out loud, laughs at all the things that snuff out joy, all the things that pretend to be all-powerful, like cruelty and madness and despair and evil, and most especially, the great pretender, death. All these pretenders are swept away by the truth and joy of the Resurrection.

As the good news of Jesus’ resurrection spread among his disciples, no doubt, surprise and joy and laughter must have bubbled up within them.

Joy is to mark the lives of Christians, especially in the Easter season when we focus on spreading the good news of Jesus rising from the dead. A glum, sour Christianity attracts few disciples.
Friedrich Nietzsche famously quipped, “If you Christians want me to believe in your Redeemer, you need to look more redeemed!”  Not that we should necessarily take advice from an atheist philosopher.  But he is certainly onto something: a truth that has been echoed often by the current holy Father, Pope Francis.

In his encyclical, “Evangelium Gaudium”, the Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis writes of how complaining and pessimism can often turn Christians into “sourpusses”, which is probably the first time the word “sourpuss” appeared in a papal document in 2000 years. Actually, the Pope’s original Spanish version of the encyclical used the phrase, “cara de vinagre” faces of vinegar, to describe Christians who have allowed pessimism and defeatism to rule over their hearts. A Christian who is complaining is not attracting anyone to Christ.

Rather, we are called to radiate with a Christian joy that bubbles up in us from our faith: that Christ is risen, he is truly risen.  Conviction that whatever powers of evil and death are left in the world, they’ve been defeated. Faith that human suffering and human death have been transformed into instruments for the sanctification of Christians. Faith that resurrection will come for all those who live and die in communion with Christ.

Christian joy is not an act. When you meet a truly joyful Christian, he is not pretending. He’s allowed the truth of the Gospel to transform his heart. And that joy is sustained through daily prayer, regular charitable service, fidelity to the commandments, and the humility to repent of his sins.

Pope Francis wrote “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy is constantly born anew.”

Easter is not just a day, it’s an entire season of 50 days. So, how can we sustain and nurture our easter joy over the next 50 days? I encourage you to read through and reflect upon the Acts of the Apostles and to imitate what you find there.

In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the first Christians “ate their food with joyful and generous hearts” (2:46). A family sitting down to breakfast or dinner, before saying grace, can recall Easter joy. Have one person say, “He is Risen!” and the rest respond “Indeed, he is risen!”

Acts of the Apostles tells us that wherever the disciples went, “there was great joy” (8:8); even amid persecution they continued to be “filled with joy” (13:52). When something doesn’t go your way, instead of complaining or cursing, recall the resurrection. Say to yourself, “He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!”

In Scripture we find the Blessed Mother rejoicing, the apostles rejoicing, the woman at the empty tomb rejoicing, the newly baptized rejoiced, those who were persecuted for being Christians rejoicing. “Why should we not also enter into this great stream of joy?”

But again, joy is not an act. It’s not pretend. It comes from the real conviction, real faith, real belief, that Jesus is risen from the dead, and this changes everything.

Now, if you were waiting for me to tell an Easter joke at some point in this homily, I apologize, the only jokes I know are about Jesuits and lawyers, so, if you know a good easter joke, I could use one for next year.

May each of you come to know and experience great Easter joy today and throughout this holy season, for He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! For the glory of God and salvation of souls.